Can't Wait
by RBnC
Summary: It's really a chance encounter. Derek wasn't going to sign up to T. A. the stupid class but he needed the credits for FAFSA to kick in. He never would have guessed he'd meet the rambunctious ball of energy.


Derek Hale sits in the Zoology class he T.A.'s for, bored out of his mind. The professor, Mr. Sawyer, is droning on and on about something to do with the life cycle of turtles or something. He'd try to beat his Flappy Bird score but he doubts that Tom – as the teacher has begged Derek to call him – would appreciate Derek throwing things and yelling so that's out the window. He's taken to texting Laura – who's sitting in a coffee shop down the road waiting for his class to finish even though he won't get out for another forty minutes – when the door open just a crack.

The door is off down a small hall so none of the students can see who is coming in. Tom says it's so they won't get distracted, but Derek thinks it's was just a coincidence. Derek stands up and walks over to the door, stopping a tall lanky boy from entering. He's got spiky brown hair and the most hypnotizing gold eyes Derek's ever seen. He's out of breath which makes Derek think he ran here.

"Mr. Sawyer is lecturing. You're obviously not one of his students or you'd know he doesn't tolerate tardiness."

The kid's right hand goes up to his chest and moves in a clockwise fashion before they're flailing too fast for Derek to actually catch.

He just stands there as the kid looks at his expectantly.

"Uh…" Derek thinks he's never been so lost on a first meeting.

The kid kind of deflates before bringing his hands up again to repeat the signals at a slower pace that Derek still can't catch.

"Uh…I – Are you trying to use Sign Language?"

He nods at Derek like he's being slow on purpose and should know better.

"I don't know Sign Language."

His shoulders sag and he throws his head back, exasperated.

He brings his hands up and pretends he's writing on his left hand with his right. It takes Derek a moment to get what he's asking for. A bit disappointed with himself for taking that long to figure it out, he walks back over to his desk and grabs a small pad of sticky notes and a pen and bringing it back to the kid.

He huffs and snatches the sticky note pad, quickly scrawling his message. He shoves it back at Derek and turns him around, trying to hurry him up. Derek walks to Tom, peering down at the message as he walks.

Scott McCall

Emergency

Hospital NOW

He hands it to Tom, who waves Stiles inside before turning to the class.

"Mr. McCall? You're needed at the Hospital apparently."

Derek knows Scott; he helped Scott study when he fell behind in the class. He seems like a bright kids when it comes to certain things. He's not surprised when Scott looks concerned to see his friend as he jogs over. Derek is surprised to see someone pack up their things so quickly.

"Is it Mom or Dad?"

The brunet who interrupted their class brings his hand up to his head, his thumb meeting his forehead with his fingers pointing upwards.

"Why are you here then?" Scott asks confused, almost insulted.

The brunet rolls his eyes before jabbing at his own chest and repeating the gesture.

"Why didn't you say that?" Scott asks and the Brunet looks like he might punch Scott as they make their way out of the class room. As they leave Scott's friend makes them stop and translate what he wants to say. Derek thinks it's what he was trying to say earlier.

"Uh, he says 'sorry …for interrupting …the class, it's an emergency'." Scott stumbles along as the brunet signs.

They turn and quickly walk – nearly running – out of the classroom and Tom goes back to his lecture. Derek decides that the least he can do is take the notes that Scott is missing. Maybe in return he'll introduce him to his cute friend.

'You can't ever do things to be nice, can you? Everything has to have an ulterior motive with you.' A voice that sounds suspiciously like Laura scolds him.

Next Thursday, Derek hands Scott the notes he'd missed when he enters class.

"Thanks, man, you didn't have to do that." Scott smiles.

"No problem. Uh, who was in here Tuesday?"

"Oh, that's Stiles. Sorry about that. I have to apologize to Mr. sawyer too."

"What happened?"

"Stiles' dad got shot." He says, looking over the notes.

Derek doesn't think that qualifies as an emergency.

"I should probably mention that he married my mom a while back, so technically he's my step-dad."

Derek nods, thinking that that made more sense.

"So …Stiles? He's your step-brother?"

"Yeah, but we were friends way before that." Derek wants to ask if Scott would introduce him to Stiles but he can't think of a way to actually do the asking without sounding weird.

"So he's deaf?" He asks instead.

"No, he lost his voice a while back. He's still new to the whole signing thing. I think he hates not being able to use his voice more that he'd hate it if he lost his hands." Scott laughs, but it has no humor to it.

He holds up the notes, "Thanks for these, Derek." He leaves Derek alone to sit in his seat.

That's when Tom walks in and Derek is forced to sit at his desk in absolute boredom.

Three weeks later, Derek hasn't seen hide or hair from 'Stiles' but Scott mentions him a lot. Well, they rarely talked outside of the course work before, so that might have _something_ to do with it.

However, that afternoon he sees Stiles enter the room after class has ended. Scott is already making his way over.

Derek doesn't know what comes over him, but he calls out, "Thanks for not interrupting this time."

Stiles mouths something, but no sound comes out and Derek is floundering while he signs at Scott. He sees the brunet point at him as the final sign so he thinks maybe he was insulting him.

"He says 'I have something for you.'?" Scott sounds as thrown by that as Derek.

The brunet reaches into his pocket and looks surprised, as if he'd lost whatever he'd had there. Except he pulls his hand out and smiles while flipping Derek off.

"Hey, come on." Scott nudges him.

His friend ignores that and instead turns to Scott. He points at Scott and runs his hand down his chest in the shape of a 'C' or a semi-circle.

"Yeah, I could eat. What were you thinking?"

He makes a few signs that Derek misses as he goes back to his desk to sort papers.

"Yeah, sounds good." Scott agrees before they make their way out of the room.

Derek grumbles, disappointed that he'd botched up what could potentially be his only chance to talk to the brunet. He wonders if it's just the way he looks because Laura is always telling him that he has a perpetual scowl in place.

"Hey, Derek." Scott calls.

He looks up to see Stiles looking at Scott as if he's grown another head on his shoulders.

"Wanna grab lunch with us? My treat." Derek considers declining just because of the petulant look Stiles has on his face.

He's about to decline when he sees Scott mouth the words 'trust me' at him. Curiosity peaked, Derek agrees.

"Sure, where are we going?"

"Little place just down the road."

Derek grabs his jacket and follows Scott down the hallways of their community college.

"He doesn't look too happy to have me along."

"He just hates meeting new people."

"Why?" Derek asks, wanting to know more about the brunet who is walking quite a distance in front of them.

"He's a bit resentful that he has to use ASL. He used to be a social butterfly but then he lost his voice and people stopped talking to him. Said it was inconvenient to have to sign instead of talking. Most of them didn't want to bother to learn and made fun of him."

"Sounds like they weren't good friends, then."

"That's what I told him, and he knows that, it just hurts that it all went wrong." Scott sighs.

"What went wrong?" Scott looks guilty for having brought it up.

"His mom was really sick. Like, a lot. And Stiles got most of her problems. He went in for a surgery near his vocal cords or something," Scott gestures to his throat, "I didn't understand much of it, but anyway…the surgery went great. Like, really well. Better than they expected. And then when Stiles went in for a follow up about a month later, they found this quiet little infection in his throat and they said that if they didn't remove the infected parts he'd get even sicker and he'd more than likely die. He didn't want to leave his father behind so he opted to have the infection removed and with it, his voice."

Derek feels guilty for bringing it up but he's glad that Scott told him.

"Would he be okay with you telling me all of that?"

"Yeah, I think. Better you bring it up with me than with him." Scott smiles and Derek sees Stiles waiting for them. He thinks lunch is going to be awkward.

Lunch isn't nearly as awkward as Derek though it would be. Stiles has a great sense of humor, one that goes well with Derek's dry, dark humor. Stiles' sense of humor is a bit more dirty, though.

Derek has a hard time watching Stiles hands move at the speed of light and listening to Scott flounder while trying to keep up.

"How do you sign so fast?" Derek asks after a particularly long explanation of how Stiles' classes are going.

Another flurry of hands has Scott choking on his food.

"I'm not translating that." Which means another dirty joke.

"Seriously." Stiles waits for Scott to finish his bite before starting to sign, this time at a more reasonable pace.

"He says that he's always used his hands to talk but now it's the only way he can get people to understand him. The best way to learn a language is to do nothing _but_ speak that language."

"Really? So like…if I wanted to learn Spanish, my best bet is to strand myself in Mexico with no one who speaks English anywhere near by?"

"No, he means that you learn faster when you have no other way to communicate. Like, Stiles and I started taking ASL together six months ago but Stiles is way better than I am at it because I can talk and he can't." Scott clarifies.

"Huh, makes sense." Derek mumbles, curious.

"So what are some basic signs?" Derek asks, "If you don't mind."

Stiles shakes his head, before pointing at Derek. Then he flattens out his hand and tucks his thumb in before circling around his face.

"He says you're beautiful." Derek laughs at that and blushes a little.

Then Stiles points at him again before pointing to his head with his index finger and flicking it upwards.

"He says -"

Stiles waves at Scott before shushing him.

"I'm…smart?"

Stiles nods and Derek laughs again. He can't stop the smile that creeps onto his face.

Stiles waves to get his attention before pointing at him again. Then he holds his left hand palm up and swipes across it with his right hand twice before taking both index fingers and miming a smile.

"You think I have a nice smile?" Stiles nods and Scott groans.

"If you two are going to flirt, I'm leaving." Stiles rolls his eyes as Derek flushes.

Stiles points to himself before tapping his first two fingers on his right hand against the two first fingers of his left hand twice in an 'x' fashion. Then he holds up his right hand up in a fist with the thumb across his fingers. Then his pointer finger crosses over the top of his thumb so it's locked in between. Then it's a fist with the pinky extended, followed by what Derek is guessing is supposed to be an L and another fist, only this one has his thumb under his other fingers. Then it's the first fist again; the one where his thumb is resting across the front of his fingers. He makes the 'nice' gesture again followed by his fists resting together with the pointers fingers extended and also meeting and then he's pointing at Derek again.

Derek takes a minute to try and puzzle it out. He recognizes nice, if only because it was just used, and he's guessing Stiles spelled out his own name.

"Educated guess says 'My name is Stiles, it's nice to meet you'?"

Stiles does a sarcastic clap, but Scott nudges him with a smile so he's guessing he got it right.

"Alright so, let me get this straight." He holds out his left hand, palm facing up, before swiping his right palm across it as if wiping of his hands, "Nice."

Stiles nods.

Derek holds his right hand flat and tucks his thumb to his palm before circling his face, "Beautiful."

"Or handsome, it depends on who you ask." Scott chimes in.

He crosses his pointer and middles fingers in an x symbol and taps his right ones on the left twice, "Name."

Stiles nods again.

Derek gets caught up in Stiles teaching him new signs that he doesn't notice Scott on his phone until he stands up with it in his hand.

"Isaac is here to pick me up."

Stiles wags his right pointer finger back and forth before pointing at Scott and then flicking both pointer fingers from his chest towards the door with a confused look on his face.

"Well, I'm going to -" He makes what Derek thinks is a rock on symbol with both hands and rubs them together.

Stiles chuckles – though no sound comes out – and nods, smiling brightly.

Scott pays for all of them, like he'd promised, before leaving. When Stiles turns to look back at Derek, the older man mimics Stiles earlier statement of 'you have a beautiful smile'.

Stiles turns absolutely crimson and Derek thinks he can't wait to sign up for the college's ASL classes.


End file.
